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Reviewing the facts

6035 Views 24 Replies 9 Participants Last post by  aquaverde
I've been reading the western fertilizer Handbook recently to try and figure out more on fertilizing.

Here is an excerpt:
Balance is import in plant nutrition. An excess of one nutrient can cause reduced uptake of another. An excess of potassium, for example, may compete with magnesium uptake in crops. A heavy application of phosphorus may induce a zinc deficiency in soil that is marginal or low in zinc. Excess Iron may induce a manganese deficiency.

It says nothing of Potassium inhibiting Calcium. I think the problem is Magnesium levels instead of calcium, that is why all these expiriments seem to be irradic and unconclusive. Magnesium is being left out. I have a GH of 8 and Dosed a AG grade Potassium chloride that had a considerable amount of Mg. Over time strange problems occured in Micranthermum micranthemoides(Sp?). Now it has completely melted away. The only think i can think of to solve the problem is starting over from scratch and treat deficiencies as they show up until i get a handle on things.

The book also suggests and i dont want to type it all out so i will abbreviate:
Visual symptoms of nutrient deficiencies can be useful but are not conclusive. Only a trained proffessional can know if it is a deficiency or another problem like root aeration and toxicity.

Also incase you didn't know (Like me) Necrosis is the death of tissue and Chlorosis is the yellowing of tissue.

Please discuss this if your interested i want to know what the experienced people have to say.

Also can anyone tell me how exactly i get a water report. The website for my area is very confusing, would i find a phone number in the yellow pages?
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Just to query some clarification-
I don't know what Black Diamond is, but Diamond Black is lignite, which is one of the ingredients in Fertiplant. I think this is what Shane meant to refer to? Lignite is a form of coal, IIRC.
Coal and charcoal are not the same thing!

Haha, well, you might be able to, but I would only consider using activated charcoal, not the stuff from the grill!

The point of my first post was to point out that we are not talking about charcoal, though. Charcoal is wood that has been partially burned/heated in the absence of oxygen- a form of carbon. Lignite/leonardite is what happens to peat that is on its way to becoming coal. Coal is a fossil fuel mined out of the earth, and it is also a form of carbon. Go read here for some more information about lignite:

http://www.glossary.oilfield.slb.com/Display.cfm?Term=lignite

http://www.agecology.com/products/showprod.php?ProdID=41&PHPSESSID=5cf2301702c15c8db917f22bfff092ee

Here is a link illustrating the formation of coal and where lignite is in that process:

http://www.athro.com/geo/trp/gub/coal.html

And here to find out about activated charcoal:

http://www.howstuffworks.com/question209.htm

Hope that helps.

Edit: Sue, you got in before me!
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